Monday, May 25, 2015

Review Slap! A School for Brides: A Story of Madiens, Boringness, and man am I happy I do not live in this era!

Disclaimer *Review Slap is my personal opinion, I have received no compensation whatsoever in posting this review. Also title of post may fudge the actual title in discussion.*

A School for Brides by Patrice Kindl
On sale July 14, 2015
Ages 12 & up

A School for Brides follows the lives of 8 girls of various ages from 12 to 19 at a boarding/finishing school to prepare them for marriage life. The school is however located in the middle of nowhere and thus many of the students worry as to how they will find a suitable bachelor. The reader follows the older protagonists of age 16-19 for the most part.

I had received an ARC of A School for Brides and this is what the cover looks like.

It did have a sticker over it to show the official cover-

I do think the new release cover is beautiful and more pleasing to the eye. However for this type of book I prefer the review copy cover. It's cute and shows the books comedy and lightheartedness really well. I also love all the girls drawn, as I read the book I could pick out whose who and why they where doing the various things on the cover.

The Bad: So the setting and the genre of this book set it up in what may be the most boring time and place possible. I mean these girls just sit around sewing and doing things to pass time until they are married. The book itself actually addresses this in that some of the girls feel no passion towards their school projects like painting or writing because they know these things will most likely never really matter once they are married off. Now this isn't bad- it actually saves the book from becoming unreadable. I was just really hung up on how horrible living like that would be for me. Yes, I understand this is how many women had lived their lives, and that this mindset is common in history. However I just kept trying to picture myself living like this, and quite honestly all I see is me being the village's crazy hag or the town's suicide because everything was so boring in my life. So just that where clear, this is not necessarily a mark against the book, I am just explaining my personal feeling towards trying to place myself in the characters life's.

The Good: Despite the boring setting and boring lifestyle these girls have, I was still captured by the whimsy and sometimes funny moments in the book. One of the main protagonist's Miss Emily Asquith often voiced what I was feeling while reading. She had said on multiple occasion's that she's bored or does not like how women are still restricted in many areas of life. With Asquith voicing the more liberal and non conventional ideas she was my link to connecting to the book. She made things more relate-able and more genuine to me. For example, at one point she explains to a friend that she understands her life to marry up in society and to serve for the rest of her life. Her only wish is marry someone who will somewhat relate to her or at be kind. She understood her lot in life, she may have not agreed with it, but accepted it nonetheless.

And the Book: Overall I did enjoy A School for Brides. Once I got past the life a woman is suppose to lead in the setting, I was able to let the story entertain me. It was lighthearted and many time's made me laugh. I would recommend this for a quick light read as it's only two hundredish pages long.

2 comments:

The covers are both pretty neat and the concept is intriguing (and totally sounds like it could be adorable and swoony and amazing). Oh gosh boring setting and all they do is sit around and learn crafts?! Whoa my feminist thoughts are screaming right now. I'm glad Emily shares her liberal views. I like the contrast! Nice review <3